The problem I now faced as I passed the ground floor of the Obsidian Halls and yet continued down the stairs, was how I would deal with Iris. I knew that any other Black Sorcerer would muse that I could simply trade myself to appease Iris and achieve results that way, but I did not want to do such a thing. Iris was much too dangerous for me, in many ways.

So how could I appease her without sacrificing myself?

"I should have brought some flowers." I mused. "Or a jar of flies for her Brood."

There were three floors under the Obsidian Halls ground floor. The first, which I had passed, was the floor in which the slaves went about doing this and that. The floor also acted as storage for a lot of meaningless and space hogging items. Some of them were mine, of course. The floor below that was the slave quarters themselves. Not the most wonderful place to stay.

The last floor at the very bottom of it all was Iris' "beast" pen. It also acted as her living quarters, although she did technically own a sizable estate elsewhere in the Upper Tier. She, like myself, rarely left her sanctum. It may sound weird that we was capable of staying in a single room for over three months without leaving, but one must keep a simple fact in mind.

A Black Sorcerer is not human. An average Black Mage is only slightly more human. To force magic, and not practice it, is to give up your humanity for sheer power. They are something that is either, based on the morality of those who look upon them, better or worse. But I digress, the fact of the matter was I could have stayed in my sanctum for a year and failed to realise it.

"Hm?" I felt the stares of what seemed to be countless creatures all fall onto me at once. My eyes made it clear as day even in the dark bowels of Iris' pens, but the pitch blackness would have been too much for a regular slave. Not that slaves would come down here of their own free will. Only when ordered to feed Iris' beasts would they make the trip.

And of course, veteran slaves knew the double meaning of that order. Those who didn't, rarely got to learn.

I was surrounded by many of the black creatures that formed the Brood. The size of an average dog, these were a special kind of creature that Iris called Wolgrim Spiders. If that wasn't the official name, I had no way of figuring out what the real one was. Those kinds of things were not my forte.

"Your master." I banged the tip of my staff on the cold floor. "Bring her to me."

The spiders stood silently, staring at me. They were not hostile to me in the slightest, but even I did not like the idea of countless dog sized spiders watching me so closely. I briefly considered hitting one with my staff, but figured that wouldn't exactly help the diplomatic mission I had been sent on. Plus, I'd feel just a bit bad for the poor thing.

It's not their fault they were born so utterly spider-shaped.

"So demanding." A voice echoed through the beast pens as the Wolgrim Spiders began to skitter this way and that. "This is why you shall never be popular."

"If being demanding is a bad quality, I fear Aragor may never find a wife."

"What brings you to my lair, Wulfram the Defiler?" Iris spoke as she walked towards me.

"The same thing that brought the noble Weiss."

Iris was a lucky Black Sorcerer to say the least. Unlike the rest of us, she did not have the kind of face that only a mother could love. As such she was the only Black Sorcerer who didn't wear a mask when she entered the public. That wasn't to say her Black Mage ways hadn't soured her body, it just wasn't as utterly hideous as our transformations.

For instance, Iris never grew up. I had once been told by her that she hadn't gotten any taller since her youth. Having started practicing illegal magic in said youth, she tended to place the blame on that. Her hair was long, falling to her lower back, and had a platinum colour to it. On both of her temples sprouted what could not be mistaken for anything but grey horns.

Meanwhile her skin was pure white, to the point where if she fell asleep in public they'd probably mistake her for a corpse, and her fingernails were black as ichor. I had seen her scrape the wall without breaking or chipping those nails, which were as hard as shell and tough as metal. I had also once been slashed by them, that was not fun.

But of course the most telling part of her corruption was her eyes. They were pure black, no pupils or anything, and supposedly the light did not reach them. The downside to such a thing was that she was utterly blind, but none of us actually needed our eyes to see the world. Magic had many conveniences, and sight was one of them.

"So Weiss fails to sway me and sends you in his place?" She scoffed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I think he would have sent Thaddius if he had have met him before me." I mused. "You know the Captain means well. About as well as anyone in this foolish place can mean."

"You speak fondly of the Captain." She seemed amused by my words, tapping her chin with her long fingernails. "It is rare to hear you speak fondly of another."

"Is it?" I moved closer, placing my hand on Iris' head. "I speak fondly of you, do I not?"

"You are a good liar, Wulfram, but your lies tend to fall apart when it comes to displays of false affection. But I accept your words, regardless." She seemed to almost pur as I brushed her hair with my hand. "Zoma Weiss wishes me to cage my pets, but why? He did not say."

"Yes, I can imagine he tried to request your assistance halfway up the staircase. Either way, it has to do with the Red King. Apparently he's stopping by for a visit."

"The Devil Aurellius?" Iris scoffed, adding venom to her words. "What would the Cursed King want with the Sun Emperor?"

"I haven't a clue. Nor do I particularly care to find out. It's obvious that no matter why he's here if he were to, say, be eaten by spiders..."

"I suppose that would be a bit of a diplomatic incident."

"A bit." I gave a nod. "Just a bit."

"Very well. I will cage my pets, but tell Weiss that I have not done it for the Sun Emperor or his minions. I've done it for you."

"And I am very grateful." I lied. "Very grateful, indeed."

I turned to walk away from the beast pens, and possibly to a place less infested with dog sized spiders, when I heard Iris call out from behind me.

"Leaving so soon?"

I felt a chill run down my spine as I let out a nervous laugh. I had to be careful, or else I'd meet a worse fate than the slaves the spiders decided to wrap up for later consumption. "Our business has concluded and I have a very important mission ahead of me."

"The Sun Emperor wishes for me to decipher a mysterious book." I added.

"You've had the book for a while now, how have you not finished?"

"It is a very complicated book, and I have a lot on my plate." I lied again. Well, only the second half was a lie. I was still unsure of what to do about the book.

"How sad. I had assumed you truly cared for me as I cared for you, Wulfram the Defiler. Perhaps I will not cage my Brood after all." The Wolgrim Spiders close to me suddenly became wary of me, and I knew she was intentionally riling them up by using her connection to them.

"But what measure is a book against such a lovely woman?" I had failed to escape with my life. I could only hope the spiders wrapped me up before Iris did.

"Don't look so frightened, Wulfram." She spoke as she moved closer to me, motioning me to lower myself to her eye level. "I would never do you any harm."

To punctuate this, she ran her fingernails against my cheek. "I can't help but think back to the time you did this exact motion and then clawed me across the face."

"That was merely because you had chosen to ignore me."

"True, but that was still a form of-" I cut myself off as I felt her put more pressure on my cheek. "No harm. Of course."

"Good. Good. It has been so long since we were face to face."

"According to Weiss, it's been about three months."

"And I missed you every single day."

Her words were like honey, too erotic for the body that she had been gifted. It did not arouse me nor did it particularly fill me with joy. It was not the body that put a wall between us, but my knowledge of the depravity of Iris. Were I to take a guess, I would assume that the reason her outward appearance is so un... transformed, is because her insides are what turned filthy.

She was dangerous. Not just in a traditional sense like Aragor, but in a spiritual sense as well. I truly believed giving in to her temptations would be the end of me on some level. Thus I couldn't help but try my best to put some distance between us. At the very least I did not want to ever be in a vulnerable state around her.

"How about we arrange a dinner." I spoke, placing my hand over hers and lightly pulling it away from my cheek. I held it with both hands in some attempt at an affection gesture, wary of getting another claw to my face. "Possibly one not underground."

"Are you offering to visit my estate of your own free will?" She mused.

"Not necessarily. Perhaps I could take you somewhere? Or I could kidnap one of the kitchen staff from the palace? Or I could bring a cook back from the dead? All of these are fine options."

"I would rather a more intimate dinner. I know that Wulfram Azalea the Defiler and God Eater can cook. I've never tasted your food before. I'd very much like to." She spoke in her alluring voice, still obtaining almost no real results.

I found myself cursing past Wulfram for willingly letting slip my dark secret of culinary talent. When boasting of talents we held outside of magic, I had very few. I couldn't raise myself in their eyes if I had boasted about my ability to write erotic fiction about the Fae. Still, I realised I could make this work for me.

"Very well. Though we'll dine in my sanctum and not your estate."

"That's acceptable, I suppose." She seemed a little annoyed, but didn't seem to want to argue. "And when shall this dinner be held?"

"How about after the Red King leaves?" I spoke, quickly adding to my sentence as she frowned. "Think of it as a reward for holding back and not sending your spiders to maul Captain Weiss."

"I suppose that is also acceptable." She mused, no doubt thinking of having Weiss webbed up in her beast pens. I couldn't begin to guess why she didn't get along with Weiss, even if I knew very well why Weiss didn't get along with her.

"Then the matter is settled." I brushed her hair again, more of a pat really. "With that, I really should be going. If I have your leave?"

Iris hesitated for a moment before letting out a quiet sigh. "I suppose so. I will await my reward eagerly."

I had done it. I had survived an encounter with Iris. My happiness was amplified by my desire to shove the impending doom of my dinner with Iris deep into a forgotten part of my memory. That was a problem for Future Wulfram, not Present Wulfram. I shook the thoughts from my head as I began to make my way out.

"Wulfram." Iris caught me once more with her voice. "I almost forgot to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Have you..." She trailed off. It was unusual for Iris to falter in such a way. "No, nevermind."

"Oh." I gave a shrug, not truly interested in what she had to say in the first place. "Very well."

I could not imagine the face she had made as I turned around. But then again...

I could not imagine the sheer level of change that was about to occur.